Assessment of the TV Journalist’s Profession by Students Studying TV Journalism

Section: Sociology of Journalism

In the age of extremes, the global media system faces crucial crises, which concerns all the stages of content production, affects work practices, changes the ways of advertising spending and transforms communicative relationship between journalism and the public. The changing media environment affects first of all traditional media, especially news brands. Radio stations, print media and TV channels are forced to produce and distribute news content via multiple platforms, struggling for life, trying to find new existential meanings by means of profoundly modifying patterns of information consumption. Today it is necessary to examine the dichotomy of using the news, which was revealed during the multicrisis of 2019–2022, when the audience was divided into two parts – “doomscrollers” and “news avoiders”. As a result, understanding the professional roles of journalists and principles of modern newsrooms became complicated tasks. Such a metamorphosis is making pluralization of functions the main characteristic of a job in a newsroom and leading to a shift in perceiving the analyzed specialization. An increasing demand for journalists as writers, videographers, video editors, curators, content creators and bloggers at the same time awakens fear in the new generation. News production is considered by youngsters as an extremely difficult occupation. This study examines Russian students’ attitude to working on TV and uncovers some important problems of higher journalistic education in Russia. In the present article, we tried to find out if there is a threat of the personnel crisis in the TV news industry. Our research draws upon student interviews. A quantitative survey demonstrates how young people, who chose television as a field of study, understand this vocation and highlights that only one tenth of respondents want to make television news after graduation. The main aim of this paper is to analyze what factors have an impact on shaping students’ opinion about modern television. The scientific novelty and relevance of the survey are based on the fact that eventual oncoming employee crises of news television is poorly studied at the moment and a clear description of reasons for the declining interest in TV journalism among students is presented for the first time. The conclusion discusses what exactly could be done by the community of TV journalists and by university lecturers to motivate the youth to become part of the television world.

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To cite this article: Proskurnova E.L. (2023) Professiya telezhurnalista v otsenke studentov napravleniya «Televidenie» [Assessment of the TV Journalist’s Profession by Students Studying TV Journalism]. Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika 4: 23–43. DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.4.2023.2141